Festival Gift

The Chinese observe a wide variety of traditional and modern holidays, based both on the lunar and solar calendars. The traditional Chinese calendar was based on a lunar cycle-- that is, dates following the regular appearance of the full moon. Even so, the equinox and solstice were essential for determining seasons in China's agrarian society. With the international use of the Gregorian Calendar, some modern holidays, such as the birthdays of national leaders, are based on that.
Major holidays celebrated in China, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities are marked in bold, with this year's corresponding Gregorian dates in parenthesis.